New Training: vDS Networking Features

In this 10-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer Keith Barker describes and demonstrates the features available with the vSphere Distributed Switch. Watch this new VMware training.

Watch the full course: VMware Certified Professional

This training includes:

• 10 videos

• 1.5 hours of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Intro to vDS Networking Features

• vDS vs vSS Comparison

• Port Mirroring

• Port Blocking

• Changing Multiple Port Groups

• vDS and NetFlow

• Private VLANs (PVLANS)

• Network Recovery

• Hands on Lab: vDS Features

• vDS Features: Lab Walk Through

A Brief Overview of Netflow for vSphere

The networking environment in vSphere is comprised of both physical and virtual devices. Those virtual devices include virtual switches. These virtual switches are how VMs hosted in vSphere communicate with each other and devices outside of vSphere. There are two types of virtual switches available in vSphere. One of them is a distributed switch that lives as a data center object within vSphere and is available to all VMs within that data center group. Because of this, that distributed switch includes Netflow functions.

There are a couple of things you need to know before enabling Netflow in vSphere. First, Netflow is only available on distributed switches. It's also only available with vSphere version 5 or greater. The version of Netflow included with vSphere is version 10 or the IPFIX (internet protocol flow information export) version.

Before enabling Netflow on a distributed switch in vSphere, a Netflow collector must be configured first. There are a variety of open-source utilities available for this. After the Netflow collector is configured, Netflow itself can then be enabled for each distributed switch.